Are you one of 40 million travelers expected to visit Japan soon, but want a place less touristy than Tokyo and Kyoto?

If you pray for love in Izumo, there's a good chance you'll be heard. Every year, eight million gods gather in this seaside ...

In Japanese folklore, the kitsune is a fox spirit that bewitches humans, a servant of the Shinto god Inari, the patron kami ...

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by a traditional katana my grandfather had brought home from Japan in 1945. Years later, I ...

In the Japanese Shinto religion, parts of nature – the ocean, trees, rocks, rivers, mountains, animals, and waterfalls – are believed to be kami (deities), and Japanese devotees pray to them ...

Shinto is often described as the “soul of Japan ... we walk down the gravel pathway (the crunching alerts the gods or kami to your presence) to the shrine, as it is November 15 and Shichi ...